


a mixtape about someone who will never listen to it

by yerbamansa



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Friendship, Internal Monologue, Mixtape, My First Fanfic, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 21:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16333976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yerbamansa/pseuds/yerbamansa
Summary: Stevie has a private playlist about David.





	a mixtape about someone who will never listen to it

**Author's Note:**

> My first attempt to contribute to this fandom--okay, any fandom--in fic form. The song in here came up on my own playlist today, and it made me think about the show, so...
> 
> Obvs, the song (lyrics in blockquote) is not mine, either.

As similar as they were, pop culture was seldom an area that Stevie and David found common ground. I mean, there's Sarah MacLachlan, but what self-respecting Canadian of a certain age didn't love her? It never bothered Stevie, exactly; David was such a damn force that he could make her like shit she'd never admit she was into around her other friends (what friends?). Poppy stuff. Rom-coms. Under his influence, Stevie could get the appeal, at least sometimes.  
  
  
Other times, not so much. Like the time she'd unintentionally initiated a fight over "Love, Actually" when she made the mistake of reading out loud her favorite lines from a [Jezebel article](https://jezebel.com/i-rewatched-love-actually-and-am-here-to-ruin-it-for-al-1485136388) destroying the holiday classic. It's not really worth screaming over, but it was at least a tiny bit satisfying to get him so worked up and bothered about a stupid movie.  
  
But her own tastes tend toward fewer divas and more guitars. Music is intensely personal, though sometimes her own favorites made her think of people in her life. She'd dated guys who made her mix CDs, which was cute, but rarely good. She never returned the favor. She did, however, sometimes make playlists with someone else in mind. Someone who'd never hear them. Sharing music with someone else required an earnestness and sincerity that was, as David would say, "very off-brand" for Stevie, so she didn't.   
  
Someday someone might give her a reason to tear down that wall, but not today.  
  
Lately when she'd listen to music -- usually while working at the front desk and wasting time on the Internet between rare guest inquiries -- a song would hit her as a "David song." Not in the sense that he'd actually like it, just that it made her think of him.   
  
He didn't fucking deserve to know that, and if he did, oh, the faces she imagined him making. If she thought about it too much, she might delete the playlist entirely.  
  
Today, for example, was a Mountain Goats kind of day. Stevie had to turn the volume down when "No Children" came up lest she embarrass herself singing along (it's impossible to be a Mountain Goats fan who doesn't know all the words to that song and compulsively sing along at the top of their lungs).   
  
"I hope you die! I hope we both die!" isn't what guests want to hear when they're asking for clean towels, even if the sentiment is _generally_ true.  
  
Even when the lyrics were far more specific and depressing than her own experience, Stevie found something deeply compelling in them. It was easy to let these singular, solitary stories resonate.  
  
This was how ["Cotton"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTslh_e2iE) made it onto Stevie's playlist of songs for David that he'll never listen to.

> This song is for the rats  
> Who hurled themselves in to the ocean  
> When they saw that the explosives in the cargo hold  
> Were just about to blow
> 
> This song is for the soil  
> That's toxic clear down to the bedrock  
> Where no thing of consequence can grow  
> Drop your seeds there  
> Let them go
> 
> Let them all go  
> Let 'em all go
> 
> This song is for the people  
> Who tell their families that they're sorry  
> For things they can't and won't feel sorry for
> 
> And once there was a desk  
> And now it's in a storage locker somewhere  
> And this song is for the stick pins and the cottons  
> I left in the top drawer
> 
> Let 'em all go  
> Let 'em all go
> 
> I wanna sing one for the cars  
> That are right now headed silent down the highway  
> And it's dark and there is nobody driving  
> And something has got to give
> 
> I saw you waiting by the roadside  
> You didn't know that I was watching  
> Now you know  
> Let it all go

  
...over-analyzing it wasn't the point. But the verse about the cars made Stevie wince at the memory of David running away and how crushed she felt.  
  
She got over it.

> Let 'em all go  
> Let it all go

  
Maybe it's time to switch to something that doesn't make her think of David at all. There's a whole day to get through.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I've ever published on here, and I know it's pretty light. On Tumblr @theschittplace I wrote a bunch of mini-fics about a Schitt's Creek/The Good Place crossover. I think I may be the only person to find that amusing. Anyway, thanks for reading. <3


End file.
